Pro Hero: Ingenium
by kocomics
Summary: The tale of the first student from class 1A to break through into the Top 10 Ranked Heroes.


A shot rang out in the night. There were no screams to accompany the echo, only deafening silence. Twenty minutes later there were sounds of sirens, then the sounds of dozens of voices talking in hushed voices. The sounds of the night drowned out the murder of Daisuke Ito, hero name Coldfront.

Tenya Iida rode the train every morning to keep the feeling of being one with the people he had sworn his life in service of fresh in his mind. He lived in a small apartment on the north side of Tokyo, but the Iida Family office was located in the southwest. He'd tested it of course, running he could make it there in less than a minute. The train ride took him nearly a half an hour.

Honestly, Tenya didn't mind it much. It gave him time to think, time to sort through the thoughts he'd put aside when he'd gotten home. His brother Tensei had given him a book for his twenty second birthday about how to keep yourself stress free and how to separate the parts of your life that didn't need mixing. For Tenya that meant he couldn't constantly be working, that sometimes he needed to take time off. He struggled with it, but if it would improve who he was as a person it was alright with him.

The electronic ads that ran above the seats just below the rounded roof of the train cars changed, showing the top five heroes. 1. Fat Gum 2. Hawks 3. Mount Lady 4. Kamui Woods 5. Snipe. Tenya smiled, he'd worked with Kamui Woods a few months back, the man was a consummate professional, and he had actually followed Tenya's ideas. Most Pro Heroes had ignored him at every turn when he worked with them, and in fairness it was something Tenya understood. He'd only been a pro hero for two years, and for most pros that made him a liability. He was glad his extra weight hadn't held Kamui Woods back. It also made him happy that Snipe had so quickly risen since retiring from his years teaching at UA.

Then came six through ten. 6. Ryukyu 7. Thunderclap 8. Sweat River 9. Tomorrow 10. Lemillion. Mirio Tagata's inclusion had been a great source of pride among Tenya's former classmates, he'd met up with class 1A and some other members of their year and they'd all watched the Top Ten ceremony when Mirio had shown his massive smile to the world as the number ten hero.

The train came to a stop, two away from Tenya's. A new crop of passengers entered, and Tenya shot up as quickly as he could (which was quite fast) to surrender his seat to anyone interested. He allowed himself one more list at the eleventh through fiftieth heroes, all written in much smaller text and without an image. Few caught his attention, but a few stuck out to him for obvious reasons. Nejire Hado was ranked nineteenth, Katsuki Bakugo was twentieth, Inasa Yoarashi was ranked twenty third, with Izuku Midorya at thirty, and Shoto Todoroki at forty one. There were no more familiar names on the list, just other heroes who'd been at it for as long or more time as Tenya and his classmates.

It didn't show fifty one, Tenya's own ranking. Tenya wouldn't let that get to him though, for today was the day of his first meeting with the hero team he'd assembled to break up the Red House Bandits, a massive collection of D-Tier villains who'd been causing trouble all over the city. He'd been workshopping team names all day yesterday, until setting work aside of course, but he'd thought of at least ten just between his first and second stop.

Walking into the Iida family office was always strange now that he was a pro. He was far from the head of his family, but now he was no longer the boss' visiting son or brother. It was as if no one thought he could really accomplish much, but they had to behave more when he was nearby. It was just that way as he got into work on that brisk autumn morning, nodding and straightening his back as he walked past the front desk assistant. "Hello Ichika, how was your weekend?"

Without looking up, Ichika said in her normal too bored to be here voice, "It was good Mr. Iida, how was yours?"

"Wonderful!" Iida stopped himself. He'd been told that he had a bad habit of answering peoples questions too quickly after they asked him, and he wanted to try and leave a reasonable amount of time before cutting in. "I did not do any work, it was quite relaxing. I saw the new All Might documentary at the Movie Theater near my apartment, it was very illuminating."

"Great, Mr. Iida."

Iida took a few seconds. "You have a good day Ichika."

Iida hurried away from the front desk, and took the elevator up to the fourth floor, the home of his office, and where he'd called his meeting. The elevator ride was quick, as everything the Iida family did was. Iida's office was right next to the elevator, a very simple little office with a glass back wall and a wide black desk. There was little in the way of decoration, only three wall pieces.

The first was a group picture of Tenya with Midorya, Ochako, Todoroki, Tsuyu, Kaminari, Mina, and Kirishima from the day they had graduated from UA. The second was a poster of his brother when he'd been the one using the Ingenium name and costume. There'd only been a few hundred posters made, so Iida had been forced into a bidding war online with someone named MIA11M1GHT00. Third was a framed copy of the first write up of his hero work in a newspaper, an article from the middle about how a young hero had rescued a kitten from a tree and spent three hours trying to find its owner before realizing she had been a stray. Kaminari had called him laughing the next morning before sending a picture of the article to everyone in their graduating class.

Iida sat at his desk, setting down the folder of evidence he'd brought from home on his desk, then picking it up and placing it down again on the side with less clutter to avoid a possible accident in the future. He laced his fingers and sat as still as he could for a few minutes. When that proved too dull, he picked up the phone on his desk, and typed in a few quick numbers.

"Ichika, do I have any calls?"

"No Mr. Iida."

"Thank you Ichika."

He hung up the phone and lay his head back against the top rim of his desk chair. It was a mistake not to plan the meeting for closer to when he came in. Rising from his desk, Tenya walked to the fridge in his office, and opened the door. Rows and rows of various orange juice lined the shelves with different types, different brands, different consistency of pulp.

Iida grabbed a can of Minute Maid Pulp Free and popped the top, closing the door as he turned away. Returning to his office chair, Tenya looked through the files he'd brought. Suspects, correlation of events, possible motives. Anything which had jumped out at him when he first looked over the recent villain activity for the city, he had taken note of. There was little that seemed connected, but there was one thing Tenya had noticed that made the crisis impossible to ignore. Three groups of villains had been apprehended, two committing robbery, the other attacking Mount Lady after she'd fought Mohito Joe, a villain she seemed to be fighting every other week. Each group had three members, and each time one of them had been a known member of Red House Bandits.

And the quirk make up of each group had been similar as well. One strength quirk, one distance offense quirk, and one that was more abstract. The first group had a member with a quirk which allowed her to slow everyone within a four meter radius of her except herself. The second had a member who could make anyone they touched take on the mental faculties of a chicken for ten minutes. The third had a man who could slightly lessen the power of an enemy's quirk if he kept saying their hero name on repeat.

It was clear to Tenya that the trios were connected, and there had been a number of reported crimes around the city carried out by three criminals at a time as well. The Red House Bandits were trying to do something, and Iida wanted to make sure he figured it out before they could do whatever it was they were planning.

Hachirou Saito covered his face as his neighbors Den and Jirou Tanaka kicked him while he lay on the ground. He'd received regular beatings just like this ever since two weeks ago, when Jirou, the younger sibling, had manifested his quirk. Both brothers now had powerful offensive quirks, Den to control his shadow like a weapon, and Jirou able to change the weight to his spit to as high as forty pounds. It meant that they now had common high ground to look down on Hachirou.

His quirk was merely improved ability to leap, and to stick to surfaces with his hands for a few seconds. They mocked him for having a weak quirk, a transport quirk. They didn't use their quirks on him of course, their mother had forbidden them from using their quirks outside of practice under her supervision. They simply kicked him, or hit him, or mocked him. All because his quirk wasn't made for fighting bad guys.

Both brothers said they wanted to be heros like Snipe or Ryukyu, fighting criminals. Neither had any interest in Rescue Heroes or anything other than fighting bad guys. In all fairness, Hachirou agreed with them, his favorite hero was Thunderclap, the Applauding Hero. It was all he wanted, to be able to take down a villain to prove he was a hero like all the heroes who'd come before! But he knew he never would. He had a transport quirk.

"Hey, what the hell are you two doing!?"

Both brothers pulled back their feet, and turned to look at the source of the shout. Hachirou peeked through his fingers to try an catch a glimpse as well, and saw a man with bluish black hair, sitting in a wheelchair staring daggers at the two boys. He lowered his eyes to Hachirou, and his eyes, which sat between eyebrows with arrows on the outside, softened to the look Hachirou's mother or father gave him when he hurt himself playing.

"Woah, kid, are you alright?" The anger in his voice was gone, replaced with care similar to that in his eyes.

Hachirou didn't answer, he rose to his feet as quick as he could while the brothers weren't focusing on him. Then he bent his legs and jumped up toward the wall of Mister Nakamura's Electronics Shop, sticking to it for just a moment, before jumping away over the other three's heads.

The man with blueish black hair followed him with his eyes as he left, but then turned back to the boys. Sympathy was gone in the man.

The first members of the team Iida was putting together to arrive were Mashirao Ojiro, Tailman, and Toru Hagakure, Invisible Girl. Iida only knew that they'd both arrived because when Tailman had entered, his right hand was curled as if he were holding someone else's hand. Iida rose, and went to put his hand on the table a bit too fast, so that it sounded like he'd slammed it.

"Hagakure, Ojiro, thank you for coming! Please have a seat, would you like a beverage?"

Before either of them could answer, Iida was at his fridge, pulling it open. "I have orange juice, and water, and also I have beer but I would advise against drinking it this early in the day."

A chuckle came from nowhere and a smile came from Ojiro, the Hagakure said, "I'll take a juice Iida." Ojiro simply said, "None for me, thanks."

"Right," Iida pulled a single serving bottle of orange juice from the fridge and turned, closing the fridge with his foot. "How have the two of you been? I saw on facebook that your sister got a new dog Hagakure! She is very cute!"

Ojiro raised an eyebrow and smiled as Tenya handed Hagakure, or rather, where he assumed she'd be, her orange juice. "Do you mean the dog or Hagakure's sister?"

Hagakure laughed again, but Tenya felt a slight heat take his cheeks. "I was talking about the dog. Not that I do not think your sister is an attractive woman Hagakure, but I meant the dog." Tenya took a moment. "Wait, I do not mean cute and attractive in the same fashion."

There was a quick sip from the orange juice bottle in the middle of the air, then it was followed by Hagakure's excitable voice, "Well I'm sure she'd appreciate the compliment, but she has a girlfriend."

"I did not mean it like that! I am not interested in dating your attractive sister."

Suddenly one of Hagakure's invisible hands grabbed Tenya's arm. "Oh? Are you dating someone?"

Ojiro looked over at his girlfriend, then up at Tenya, "Yeah Iida, is there a woman in your life?"

"I- No. My work is taking up my time. I cannot afford to go on dates."

Ojiro crossed his arms as his grin softened, "Is that why you broke up with the girl you were seeing in college? What was her name again?"

Hagakure cut in to answer, "Kanna wasn't it? She was so smart Tenya! I really liked her for you."

Iida let out a sigh, but luckily was saved by the arrival of another member of the team.

Hanta Sero, Cellophane. The tape slinger had been the most excited about the team up, apparently his last three fights with villains had all been losses, and Tenya had the feeling that he could use a boost to his self esteem. Which was unfortunate, out of everyone in their class at UAE, Sero had the second most rescues after Uraraka, who had broken the record for rescues in a hero's first year. Sero had been doing good work, he was just having a period of bad luck.

It didn't help that his most recent loss had wound up on QTV's top 10 Worst Fights of the Year. It seemed that any chance the reporters on QTV got they were criticizing UA alums, It had put a number of Tenya's friends on edge.

"Sero, hello! I am happy you made it. Do you want a juice, or water?"

Sero grinned his massive smile and said, "Hell yeah man, I'll take an orange juice if that's alright. Know how much you like the stuff though so if there's a volume issue, just water's fine."

Iida chuckled, "Of course not. Anything in my refrigerator is yours." He gave Sero as wide a smile as he could, but before he could answer Cellophane interrupted.

"The beer too? Does Emergency Exit Iida, drink beer during the work day?"

Tenya gasped, "No, I do not. I am keeping it there for a special occasion."

Sero and Ojiro laughed as Sero took a water from the fridge. "So what's new with you guys?" The question was aimed at Ojiro and Hagakure.

Ojiro looked over at his girlfriend, and then her voice split the air, "We just moved in together! It's a great little apartment and we're thinking about getting a cat."

"Ah man a cat? That's cool as hell!" Sero lowered himself into one of the other free chairs and took a sip of his water. "My place doesn't let me have pets."

Tenya raised an eyebrow, "Oh did you move to your own home?"

Sero paused for a moment, "My parents don't let me have pets."

"Okay, I'm here."

Three heads (probably four) turned and looked at the doorway, and there stood Kyoka Jiro, Earphone Jack. She wore a thin leather jacket over a red kevlar shirt that hung just past her belt, and beneath it was a pair of spandex pants made to look like jeans. It was her classic look from when they were in school, but more suited to the grueling fights og a pro hero.

Jiro had been the most apprehensive of the seven heroes he'd asked to meet that day. She already worked often with another group of heroes, and she was also one of the rare heroes with a second job. Her second album had just debuted in the international top 100 chart, and she was apparently working on her third already. Still, he'd wanted her on the team.

"Hey! Kyoka!" Hagakure's chair was shoved back, and after a few moments, Jiro buckled as if a weight had hit her in the chest. A smile split her face, and Kyoka wrapped her arms around her friend.

"Hey Hagakure. What's up Sero, Ojirio, Iida? You own this whole building Tenya? It's not bad."

"Yes I do, or my family does. It's a part of the larger Iida Family Company, but I have made it my base of operations." Tenya took off his glasses and looked at them for a moment before rubbing the small crevices created by the plastic bits that dug into his nose. "To be honest it leaves me in a strange position. No one's boss, but neither amo one's coworker either."

Sero tipped his water toward Tenya and smiled his trademark wide grin before saying, "Well hey man, at least you'll be the leader of this little team we're putting together."

Tenya smiled, and Hagakure cut in. "So Kyoka, how's Momo?"

Kyoka's shell dropped and a soft smile touched her lips before she said, "She's good. Her team has its own meeting later today, I doubt I'll make it. I've been real stressed with the album lately and she's been great about me being moody."

"And here I thought moody was just your default." Once more everyone turned to look at the doorway, expecting a familiar form to go with the familiar voice. However, all they saw was an empty doorframe.

For about three seconds anyway, after which Yuga Aoyama spun into view, twirling his cape as he stopped for extra flourish. "It is I, Cannot Stop Twinkling! Bonjour mes amis!" Aoyama's outfit had added a second cape which wasn't very practical but did allow him to make entrances and even just standing around much more flamboyant. It suited him. He'd also changed the color scheme of his outfit from silver to gold with more purple accents, and been given a device which ran through his suit which allowed him to let out much weaker versions of his Belly Button beam through small cannons on the back of his forearms.

"Je t'ai jugé digne de ma présence." Aoyama whipped his arm up with a flick to his wrist and pushed his hand through his hair shaking his head as his hand left his mane, then poured himself into his chair. "What are we discussing then? Plans for our glorious battle with these Red Boys?"

Ojiro looked over at him and laughed, "No, we were just catching up a little bit. Hagakure and I just moved in with each other, Sero's still living with his parents," Sero grinned and did a singular finger gun at Aoyama. Ojiro spread his arms and looked up, "This whole place is Iida's, and Kyoka of course is blowing up music wise. How about you?"

Aoyama smiled, and whipped off the glass visor that shielded his eyes. "Moi? Why haven't you seen I've been dazzling on the late night circuit! Just last week I was on The Show that is on in the Morning but it feels like Nighttime."

Kyoka leaned back so that her head rest against the wall. "I've never even heard of that show."

Tenya waved his hand down once, before saying, "I also have not heard of it. Which network or channel is it on Aoyama?"

Cannot Stop Twinkling shook his head and let out a small laugh. "The channel doesn't matter. All that truly matter is that my performance was spectacular!" He laughed once more, but there was a small discomfort about his eyes.

Ojiro turned and looked at the door, and the others looked as well, at Bakugo Katsugi. "ALRIGHT SPEEDY, tell me why I'm here. I'm doing all you IDIOTS a favor just by showing up here."

Already standing, Sero started speaking, "WoahokayfirstofallBakugoIdon'tappreciate-"

A high pitched laugh cut through the office as the Bakugo disappeared in front of them. Camie Utsushimi stood in his place, laughing and covering her face. Behind her was Rikido Sato, Sugarman, looking less pleased. He wore his costume, a full yellow suit with two blue stripes running down his arms, as well as blue gloves and boots.

"Hello. I'm sorry. She and I just met and she told me she was going to do this. I told her I didn't think it would be funny." His voice bellied his massive size, bigger than Tenya himself or Midorya. "Hi, sorry it looks like we're the last ones here."

Iida thrust his right arm in a horizontal line without thinking, then said, "No need to worry Sato. How have you been lately? The rest of us have been catching up."

Sato opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Camie cut in and said, "Oh man, my life's been buck wild since graduating. I dated this guy who was like, four years older than us right? And of course you know he tells me he's not looking to rush into things, but I heard him talking about asking his mother for her ring and YIKES! So I got out of there and since then I've just kinda been a free spirit you know?"

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, before Sato said, "I've just finished my second sidekick term with Deatharms. Gonna try heroing solo for a while. Though I guess…"

"Not so much here!" Hagakure said with a laugh.

They all laughed for a moment, and when that laugh lulled Tenya put his glasses back on and said, "RIght. Let's get started."


End file.
